Last updated August 7, 2026 · Editorial policy
Things to Do in Louisiana: What Is Actually Worth Your Time
Quick answer: This is an honest look at Louisiana: which famous strip to think twice about, what to do with that time instead, and the museum that reframes the whole state.
Bourbon Street is the image most people arrive with, and it is the part of Louisiana locals are most likely to skip. For live music that residents actually turn up for, walk a few blocks downriver to Frenchmen Street in Faubourg Marigny, where a short run of venues carries most of the city’s working musicians and many charge nothing at the door.
The visit that reframes the rest of the state is Whitney Plantation in St. John the Baptist Parish. Opened to the public in 2014, it is the only plantation museum in Louisiana dedicated entirely to the history of slavery, told through a self-paced route past restored buildings, memorial artwork and first-person narratives rather than antebellum architecture. Oak Alley, with its quarter-mile corridor of centuries-old live oaks, is the scenic counterpart if you want both in one day.
- Louis Armstrong Park in Tremé is free to walk and sits on the ground where jazz took shape — worth an hour before you head to Frenchmen Street.
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John Morrison is the founder and lead travel writer at Packzup. Over the past decade he has explored destinations across Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Oceania — always self-funded, never on a press trip.
